The Bloodhounds of Zirth

Synopsis

There was silence in the grim room broken only by the riffle of filing cards from the corner where a trusty, in gray uniform, sat working at a small desk. Warden Hughes sat at his large desk, idly fingering a small scale-model of a space ship which he used for a paperweight. Across the desk from him, in a stiff-backed, plastic-covered chair, sat Greg Purnell, special investigator for the Congress of Earth.

Before Purnell had time to speak a bell shrilled on the warden's desk. Hughes tabled the paperweight and picked up the phone. Purnell could not tell from any change of expression what the message might be. The warden listened carefully, grunted an uninforming "Yes, and then?" into the phone, listened some more, and finally hung up. Immediately he lifted it again and dialed a number.

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